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Voters approved a tax in 2016 to fund street repair and safety projects. The City promised to spend 56 percent of revenues raised by the tax on repair projects and 44 percent on safety projects. Our 2019 audit found the Transportation Bureau was not accurately tracking and accounting for costs by those categories. Projects that had spending for both repair and safety improvements were not accounted for separately, making it impossible for the City to assure the public it kept its promise to voters.
We followed up on three outstanding recommendations that had not been addressed by the Bureau. The Bureau still has not changed the way it tracks and accounts for projects to maintain the spending split as promised to voters. It also has not yet shared information with the public about spending compared to its commitment.
Recommendation Status: Not Implemented
Tracking and accounting has not changed
We recommended that the Bureau track and account for spending to ensure that the funding split was maintained. Many projects included both street repair and safety elements. Managers said it was difficult to track the split because project funding may come from various sources. The Bureau’s approach has not changed since our original audit.
Voters approved a second iteration of Fixing Our Streets in 2020. In that measure, the City committed to spending set dollar amounts on different categories of projects, including, paving; potholes, gravel streets, and base repair; sidewalks; and basic safety improvements. The draft dashboard the Bureau prepared to track project spending does not break out paving and safety elements included in individual projects. As a result, the Bureau will likely encounter the same problems it had validating the commitment to voters from the first iteration of Fixing Our Streets.
Recommendation Status: Not Implemented
Bureau says it told committee the spending split isn’t realistic
We recommended that the Bureau clarify how it would account for street repair and safety elements in projects so the oversight committee could help ensure the promised spending split was maintained. Bureau managers said they told the Fixing Our Streets oversight committee that the commitment to split revenue between street repair and safety projects was not realistic.
Recommendation Status: Slow Progress
Next year’s report should compare spending to goal
We recommended the Bureau track and publicly report on Fixing Our Streets projects as they related to commitments made to the public. The Bureau has yet to share information in annual reports or on its website about how project spending compares to its commitment to spend 56 percent on street repair and 44 percent on safety projects. Bureau managers said they plan to report on spending and explain why maintaining the split was difficult in an addendum to the 2021 Annual Report, which they anticipate releasing in early 2022.
View the 2019 audit report and recommendations and our 1-year follow up report.
Visit our online dashboard to track the status of recommendations from other reports